Webster's Blog

Maybe She Was Kidding

by John Webster,posted Feb 11 2013 1:38PM

Deb Feyerick is an anchor on CNN.

This past Saturday she was on the air talking to Bill Nye, 'The Science Guy' about the snowstorm that hit the northeast US. She teased a question before a commercial break about extreme weather events and how some people automatically wonder about (if not outright blame) global warming when such an event takes place.

When the break ended and it was back to Deb Feyerick she said, “Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, of global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?”

She was referring to an asteroid astronomers have spotted that is due to pass by our planet on February 15th in what is a relatively close distance astronomically speaking.

But did she really try to tie the asteroid to global warming?

Here's the video:

Was it supposed to be a joke? Didn't sound like one.

It sounded more like the dumbest question ever uttered on a television news program. That said, the video and accounts of her question are all over the internet.

Which leads me to make this prediction:

By the end of the week, CNN or somebody will produce a scientific 'expert' who will somehow manage to tie the Earth's temperature to the force of gravity and will make a case that "...it's not impossible to think that the rise in global temperatures actually may cause the Earth's gravitational field to increase and theoretically could attract an asteroid or other celestial object that otherwise would not come as close."